Max Baer Jr.: The Transformation Of The Last Living Beverly Hillbillies Star

As the last surviving member of the original "Beverly Hillbillies" cast, Max Baer Jr. keeps the spirit of the show alive. Baer landed the role of Jethro Bodine, the sweet but not so bright cousin of the Clampetts, just a few years into his Hollywood career and ended up playing the part for nine seasons, becoming a household name. The association with Jethro occasionally rankled Baer due to fears over typecasting and the impact the '60s classic would have on his career (more on that later), but he found ways to redefine himself in and out of Hollywood.

Baer addressed his issues with being recognized and the ups and downs of celebrity in an interview with The Copley News (via MeTV), saying, "Actors who claim they hate being recognized are lying. For if they really felt that way, they wouldn't be in the business. Everybody deserves a little privacy, but I look at it this way. When you take the cape and jump in the ring with the bull, you have to fight. You can't march in with the picadors and then go sit in the stands." As he navigated life after the height of his "Beverly Hillbillies" fame, Baer found opportunities to reject and embrace his connection to Jethro.

Max Baer Jr. was born on December 4, 1937, in Oakland California. What some "The Beverly Hillbillies" fans may not know is that Baer Jr. was the son of famous boxer Max Baer, who was played by Russell Crowe in the Ron Howard-directed film "Cinderella Man." (Baer Jr. has made it pretty clear in interviews that he doesn't fully approve of the portrayal of his father.) Baer Jr. went on to serve in the Air Force as a medical technician at Maxwell Air Force Base in Gunter, Alabama.

Growing up the son of a boxer, Baer Jr. said his people used to test him and bully him, so he learned to fight back. "That's when I became a bully. Now when anyone started to say to me, 'So, you're Max Baer's kid,' I'd haul off and hit him. He might have wanted to tell me how much he admired my dad, but I knew the first guy to throw a punch was the winner. So, I never let anyone finish the sentence," he told Fore Magazine in 2017.

Max Baer Jr. started his acting career in 1960 on shows like "Maverick," "77 Sunset Strip," and "Surfside 6." Just two years into his career, he landed his breakout role as Jethro Bodine on "The Beverly Hillbillies," alongside Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, Raymond Bailey, and Nancy Kulp. Baer said in the aforementioned interview with Fore Magazine that he purposefully delayed his audition for the role by telling the producers he had laryngitis so he could try to perfect Jethro's accent, which he based on Andy Griffith and Jonathan Winters records. He also cheekily said he got drunk with Granny actor Irene Ryan before his "Beverly Hillbillies" audition, and when he was in the scene he not only ran into a door jamb, but apologized to the door jamb. Evidently, this impromptu interaction with an inanimate object helped land him the role.

"The Beverly Hillbillies" ran for a whopping nine seasons, but was never a critical darling. However, Baer, like Ryan, defended the show against critics that it was frivolous and "silly." He said in an interview with The News Tribune (via MeTV), "If you like to laugh and want to sit down and forget your problems for half an hour — if you want to be a little bit silly, or see somebody else be a little silly, watch 'The Beverly Hillbillies.'" He added, "This show relaxes you. You don't have to think. The plot is chewed and digested for you there on the screen. We play for the people, not the critics."

Max Baer Jr. continued acting after "The Beverly Hillbillies" came to an end, like much of the cast, but was frustrated by typecasting and a seemingly permanent association with his dim-witted character, Jethro. "I couldn't go into a producer's office and say I wanted to play the part of a neurosurgeon or pilot. As soon as I came on screen, people would say, there's Jethro," he told Fore Magazine. That drove him to produce a feature he could star in, titled "Macon County Line." Baer raised the funding himself with help from other producers, the director, and Roger Corman. Released in 1974, the film became a financial success, making $35 million on a $225,000 budget. It became the most profitable film of the year, and it held the record for most profitable movie relative to its budget until the release of "The Blair Witch Project" in 1999.

Baer went on to produce his second film and make his directorial debut with "The Wild McCullochs" and later option the rights to the Bobbie Gentry song "Ode to Billie Joe." Baer directed the movie based on the song, retitled "Ode to Billy Joe," starring Robby Benson and Glynnis O'Connor. While Baer is often cited as the first person to option a song for a film, it's not quite accurate (other films like "Alice's Restaurant" beat him to the concept). The move does show Baer's shrewd business instincts though, which he parlayed into other projects in and out of Hollywood.

While producing and directing, Baer also continued acting throughout the '70s and '80s, appearing in shows like "Fantasy Island" and "Love American Style." His final credited work is in two episodes of "Murder, She Wrote," with the last one airing in 1991. Baer's last directorial effort was the 1979 film "Hometown U.S.A."

Baer did have additional plans to continue producing though. He attempted to secure the film rights to Madonna's hit "Like a Virgin," but was blocked by ABC. In 1991, Baer won a $2 million settlement after a Los Angeles Superior Court jury agreed that the network illegally threatened to sue the songwriters if they sold the rights to Baer. He told the Los Angeles Times at the time that he was satisfied with the result, as he'd tried to overcome his association and image as the "dig dumb chuck" that was Jethro Bodine. "It's the point of winning even more so than the money. People can't continue to do these things in the entertainment industry," he told the outlet at the time.

After years of pushing back against his association with Jethro and "The Beverly Hillbillies," Max Baer Jr. decided to go all in on the character. He first obtained certain licensing rights to the show and likenesses in 1991 from CBS and started a line of slot machines based on the series. "It's so obvious it's not a gamble," Baer said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 2002. "It fits in. It meshes with the characters and the show."

From there, Baer began work on trying to open a "Beverly Hillbillies"-themed casino near Nevada. Baer's initial proposal for the casino featured a 200-foot flaming oil derrick (a nod to the oil that made the Clampetts rich) outside a 30,000-square-foot casino with 800 slot machines and 16 game tables. He also planned to have a movie theater on the property, a 240-room hotel, and several restaurants, all themed around the show.

However, Baer faced several legal battles that lasted years over zoning and the location. Early in the process, Baer said, per Around Carson, "I can wait in perpetuity," and he certainly tried to. In 2007, Baer agreed to alter his plans and lose the oil derrick and large hotel towers to try to move the project forward. He held on to land in Douglas County, Nevada, for years, but the land he purchased was finally foreclosed on in 2010, effectively ending the project.

Max Baer Jr.'s "Beverly Hillbillies" business ventures didn't entirely end with the failed casino. In 2014, Baer sued CBS, the network that aired the show, claiming they made inappropriate deals with an Iowa restaurant chain to use his character's name. The restaurant, Jethro's BBQ, opened in 2008 and the name was approved in an out-of-court agreement, along with certain changes to the restaurant, including dishes named after some characters.

Baer sued, saying the deal undermined his rights, which he had already negotiated in 1991 with CBS for restaurants, hotels, and casinos. His agreement, per the documents obtained by The Associated Press, show that the actor already spent up to $1 million to develop his business and paid royalties to CBS for merchandise, including revenue from the slot machines and a brand of BBQ sauce. As of 2017, a settlement released the restaurant from liability and damages, stating there was no evidence of damage to Baer. Most of the remainder of the lawsuit was tossed at the time, but Baer was allowed to continue fighting for one remaining claim to declare his rights on his original 1991 deal. 

"The Beverly Hillbillies" actor Max Baer Jr. has led a relatively quiet personal life. He was married to Joanne Kathleen Hill from 1966 until 1971. His love life was also marked by tragedy when his girlfriend, former Penthouse model Chere Rhodes, died in 2008. 

In the aforementioned 2017 Fore Magazine interview, Baer alluded to perhaps striking up some sort of relationship with some famous names, like Sharon Tate, who had a supporting role on "The Beverly Hillbillies." Per the outlet, the two attended the 1962 Emmys together. He also hinted at something with Natalie Wood and Marilyn Monroe, but didn't offer any details. (Baer also cracked a few jokes about whether or not he ever hooked up with some of his "Beverly Hillbillies" co-stars.) In the same interview, he touched on why never became a father, saying, "But I never had any kids because I don't think I could have been the father that my father was to me.”

As of 2026, Max Baer Jr. is the only surviving main cast member of "The Beverly Hillbillies." The last cast member to pass before him was Donna Douglas. In 2015, Douglas died after a life of music, marriage, drama, and more.

Baer, who was in all but two episodes of "The Beverly Hillbillies," has mixed feelings about the show itself and its impact on his life, but he clearly enjoyed working with the other actors — including the late Buddy Ebsen, who didn't always get along with the everyone in "The Beverly Hillbillies" cast. When Ebsen died in 2003, Baer told The Las Vegas Sun, "My father (heavyweight boxing champ Max Baer) died in 1959, and I went to work with Buddy in 1962 and I became like a surrogate son to him." He added, "In real life Buddy was a dignified person and in his television life, Jed Clampett was a dignified person. It's easy to get other roles when your character is a real person like Jed Clampett was."

Out of the spotlight, Baer reportedly resides in Lake Tahoe, enjoying a quiet life and regularly golfing. In the aforementioned chat with Fore Magazine, Baer expressed that he has a deep-seated passion for golf. Reflecting on his love for the sport, he stated, "I have so much respect for golfers because I know how hard it is to play. If I was good enough to make it on the Tour I would have done it, but I was half a shot worse than Alan [Geiberger] and that's terrible. Nobody could have played Jethro as well as I did, but I was probably a good country club player at best.”